Gaza ceasefire talks are at a 'critical moment' as questions remain for second phase

Negotiators are “trying to square circles that simply cannot be squared,” said H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank in London. He wondered whether an international stabilization force could really dismantle Hamas, a target Israel was unable to achieve through two years of a “brutal” military operation. While Trump’s peace plan stipulates that Hamas will disarm, the group has reasserted control of Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire and shown no immediate signs of disarmament. Disarming Hamas through military intervention is “not exactly something that any other power is going to be interested in,” he told NBC News. And when it comes to Gaza’s governance, Hellyer added, “Trump can create his board of peace,” referring to the group that would sit atop Gaza’s governing structure under Trump’s plan, but “you can’t simply enforce this stuff on the ground without cooperation from the population, unless you just want to turn it into a new type of occupation.”